Cost of migration crisis means nothing to us, says top EU official

Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU official in charge of migration, says political backlash over migration 'means nothing' as he is not elected

EU Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos during a joint news conference on the current migration and refugees crisis in Europe, in Brussels
EU Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos during a joint news conference on the current migration and refugees crisis in Europe, in Brussels Credit: Photo: Rex

The EU’s leaders “do not care about the political cost" of their handling of the migration crisis because they do not have to face election, one of its top officials has admitted.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the commissioner for migration whose controversial plan to relocate 120,000 refugees badly split the EU last week, said national leaders should “stop thinking about” the backlash they face over migration.

The relocation policy is deeply unpopular in eastern Europe, but without the threat of re-election this “means nothing”, Mr Avramopoulos said. The remarks were met with anger by British eurosceptics.

Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic were outvoted on the scheme last week, after arguing it simply will not work because migrants will refuse to be moved from Greece and Italy to poor countries, and quickly flee to Germany if they are.

Hungary has claimed the plan is an "invitation" to Muslim economic migrants who threaten the country's "Christian identity".

The Polish government's decision to split with the Visegrad group of central European neighbours and back the German-driven plan was met with fury at home, just a month before a general election..

But Mr Avramopoulos, the architect of the policy and a former Greek defence minister, told national governments to shrug it off.

“The Commission does not take the blame because it does not care about the political cost,” he said. “The Commission is here for five years to do its job and we did it with vision, responsibility and commitment. Because what is driving us is not to be re-elected. That is why for us the political cost means nothing.”

European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos arriving at the European Justice Home Affairs Ministers council on the migration crisis in Brussels
European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos arriving at the European Justice Home Affairs Ministers council on the migration crisis in Brussels

European leaders, he said, should be follow suit. “This is the message I would send all around Europe: stop thinking about the so-called political cost,” he told Politico, a Brussels-based news website.

European Commissioners are nominated by each of the EU’s 28 member states, and then assigned a portfolio by the president of the commission – currently Jean-Claude Juncker.

Whether Mr Juncker’s appointment as president represented a genuine “election” by the people of Europe – he was backed by the biggest party bloc in the European parliament - is a matter of dispute.

Ashley Fox MEP, the leader of the Conservative Party in Europe, said: "This shows what's wrong in the EU: powerful people who feel no need to account for their actions. Sometimes politicians do need to take unpopular or long-term decisions, but they also have to stand and justify those decisions every few years.”

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, added: “This unspeakable arrogance is the result of a corrupt political system where unelected EU bureaucrats have power without responsibility or accountability to a national electorate.”

"Eurocrats aren't even bothering to go through the democratic motions any more," said Dan Hannan, a Tory MEP.

The Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) won 30.4 per cent of the vote in the state of Upper Austria, the country's industrial heartland, a striking improvement on its performance in the state’s last election in 2009 when it took half as many votes with 15.3 per cent.

Manfred Haimbuchner (R) of the FPOE and leader of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOE) Heinz-Christian Strache smile after the first results of the Upper Austria regional election in Linz
Manfred Haimbuchner (R) of the FPOE and leader of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOE) Heinz-Christian Strache smile after the first results of the Upper Austria regional election in Linz

The party is closing in on the more centrist conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), which lost 10.4 per cent of its vote from the last election but managed to retain its lead to win 36.4 per cent.

Despite the welcome many refugees and migrants received from Vienna initially, fears over the influx of refugees in Austria appear to have played a significant role in the election. The country in recent months has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of migrants entering from Hungary en route to Germany.

Frans Timmermans, Mr Avramopoulos’ colleague and the EU’s first vice president, warned last week that the far right parties could surge unless comprehensive action is taken to address the crisis.

Margaritis Schinas, the commission's chief spokesman, said officials are “monitored throughout their work” by MEPs in the European Parliament.

“It is one of the most effective accountability systems we have, it works,” he said.

“I won’t go into an interpretation of what he said but knowing him as I do I have the feeling that what he had in mind is the usual sport of Brussels bashing. The commission has not anything to regret.”

David Cameron's struggle with Brussels
1951
Treaty of Paris creates the European Coal and Steel Community. Britain stays out.
1973
Britain, facing economic decline, enters the European Community.
1975
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1984
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Margaret Thatcher wields the handbag, and secures a rebate on Britain’s EU budget contributions.
1992
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2004
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